Dear Family,
On April 22, 2001, which was one year after establishing Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul II reemphasized its message in the Resurrection context of Easter:

“Jesus said to St. Faustina one day: ‘Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy’. Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.”

The devotion to Divine Mercy Sunday grew rapidly after its designation by Pope John Paul II and is now widely celebrated by Catholics. The Divine Mercy image is often placed in a location in the church for veneration. Our image hangs in the little chapel just outside the priest’s sacristy with the image of the Infant of Prague.

Dear Family,
Jesus Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Every person who has made an Emmaus Retreat knows that victory shout all too well. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians “... if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.” (I Cor.15:14)

That’s why you are here today. That’s why we gather here every Sunday, some of us every day, to share the table of the Lord, to celebrate the truth that lays at the very heart of our faith life: He is risen from death, and overcoming death means we have the promise of life, Life Eternal.

There are all kinds of jokes about Christmas and Easter Catholics, but I guess a sign of my age is that I can’t remember any of them right now. Maybe that’s a very good thing because the bottom line is that I am very glad to see everyone who comes today. I keep telling the regulars to be nice to our extra folks because hopefully they liked what they found so much that they will keep coming.

We want to create the environment of WELCOME.

Dear Family,
I put the question mark in the title because I was asking myself, am I really ready to say “Hosanna” with the crowds in Matthew’s gospel? They turned out to be pretty fickle bunch after a few days. Is it conviction that motivates what I say and do, or is it convenience? I’m praying for conviction!

What motivates you? I don’t mean motivate. I mean MmmmOTIVATE!

I don’t think Matthew’s crowds were insincere. After all, their whole faith was rooted in expecting a Messiah, and Jesus was looking like he might be the One.

What got in their way? Was their faith just paper-thin? Maybe. It was certainly open to being manipulated by the religious leaders. For the leaders, Jesus is becoming an intolerable challenge to their authority. He heals the blind and the lame who weren’t even supposed to enter the temple areas; he starts challenging the leaders with questions that show them for who they are, anything but religious in the best sense of the word.

Dear Family,
Two weeks to go and counting. What will Easter mean to you this year? As I’ve remarked in various places recently, the process of “maturing,” (i.e. getting old,) finds me becoming a little more focused on what is to come, and a lot less on what has been. Somewhere in the middle of those two ideas is my here-and-now.

A couple of people pointed out a recent op ed in the Wall Street Journal by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. I highly recommend it. Just type ‘Cardinal Dolan Inclusion’ in your search box and it should pop up. It worked for me.

The Cardinal’s article was headlined, “If You Want ‘Inclusion,’ I’ve Got a List.” After reading through Cardinal Dolan’s “list,” I was overwhelmed. I tried to envision some of the people he singled out. Picturing them was wrenching. I felt wounded, enraged, empathetic, sympathetic...

I doubt the Cardinal had to work hard to call up the groups he mentioned. As Archbishop of New York, they must create some of the very foundation stones of his ministry.